Back in the days when MTV and VH1 actually played music videos (roll with it, Europeans; I know they still do over there, but in the US, they haven't since the 90s), I filled up 3 tapes of nothing but classic music videos that I'd love to have converted. I'd try to take them to Costco or somewhere, but hey not only only go up to a certain limit (2 hours at the most, while these are 8 to 10-hour tapes), but as the videos are contiguous, they could be cut off right in the middle of a clip. And seeing that the cost to have someone convert them would be less than the cost of a VCR, it would be cheaper to do it myself, and get it right.

I'm one of those who never mastered the insanely complicated programming of the VHS machine. Pressing 'record' (at a set pre-arranged time for my brother's football matches while he was in the pub) and 'play' (for when he had recorded STNG for me) were the height of my abilities in that regard.

And now, a medium that was once cutting edge, and that I never partially - let alone fully - mastered - is obsolete. Good grief.

But I cannot count the number of STNG episodes which I first saw on VHS......and the thrill of replaying favourite scenes.....(well, yes, clearly the 'rewind' button was included in my repertoire, too).....

Yes, @mobilehaathi, I remember the VHS and Betamax wars; most of the stuff I read at the time suggested that Betamax was the better and more technologically advanced formant, but -for a variety of reasons, most of which I never fully understood - VHS won out; we held off investing in this technology until it became clear just which of them were likely to emerge the winner.

I'm one of those who never mastered the insanely complicated programming of the VHS machine. Pressing 'record' (at a set pre-arranged time for my brother's football matches while he was in the pub) and 'play' (for when he had recorded STNG for me) were the height of my abilities in that regard.

And now, a medium that was once cutting edge, and that I never partially - let alone fully - mastered - is obsolete. Good grief.

But I cannot count the number of STNG episodes which I first saw on VHS......and the thrill of replaying favourite scenes.....(well, yes, clearly the 'rewind' button was included in my repertoire, too).....

Yes, @mobilehaathi, I remember the VHS and Betamax wars; most of the stuff I read at the time suggested that Betamax was the better and more technologically advanced formant, but -for a variety of reasons, most of which I never fully understood - VHS won out; we held off investing in this technology until it became clear just which of them were likely to emerge the winner.

These were expensive playthings when they came out. $1000 average price (double that for todays dollars). Blank tapes were $25 each. Then there was the 40 pound "portable" docking recorder that you could connect a video camera to and shoot outdoors.

As a fan of tech, I too like @Scepticalscribe never mastered much of it apart from the basics. The first DVDs I ever bought were Ronin and Godzilla. The first two DVD players I owned were Sony's and weren't that great in terms of longevity. Later units were better. I still buy DVDs and or Blurays, whichever is available and better.

Ahh, good old VHS recorders. The flashing "12:00" became an icon for the technologically-challenged, but in reality it highlighted the confusing user interfaces on those machines. I remember what a pain it was to program my VCR to record shows on specific days, for example.

I discarded most of my VHS tapes over the years because much of the commercial content had become available digitally or wasn't worth keeping. Not so for personal recordings that go back to the late-80s. A few years ago I started to digitize VHS and 8 mm tapes while I still can with equipment I have on hand. I've also digitized many of my 35 mm slides.

There's an interesting parallel with computer files. As time goes on, it gets harder to open text and other documents that were created with obsolete apps or ancient versions of software like MS Word. I've converted some of those, too.

Yes, @mobilehaathi, I remember the VHS and Betamax wars; most of the stuff I read at the time suggested that Betamax was the better and more technologically advanced formant, but -for a variety of reasons, most of which I never fully understood - VHS won out; we held off investing in this technology until it became clear just which of them were likely to emerge the winner.

Click to expand...

i heard the reason VHS won, was because the p0rn industry supported it...

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